Saying Goodbye to Chief McCarthy: The Friday Funeral Procession Plan

Flags hang at half-mast and the mood is sullen in Red Bank as police ready for the funeral of their leader, who was known as one of the most modest, caring uniformed public servants around — Chief Steve McCarthy.

With the chief's viewing today at John E. Day Funeral home on Riverside Drive, the department has planned a procession route from there to St. Michael's Church in Long Branch for tomorrow morning, Capt. Darren McConnell told Patch, offering the procession's route.

The procession will leave Riverside Drive, which will be closed off to traffic for about an hour, at 9:30 a.m. It will head from Riverside to Pearl Street. From Pearl, it will make a left onto Monmouth Street, proceed to the police station, where it will pause, and then head to Broad Street.

It will then turn right onto Broad and proceed onto Harding Road. A left will be made onto Harding and then a right onto Branch Avenue to Rumson Road.

Then the procession will proceed up Rumson Road to the Rumson-Sea Bright Bridge. It will cross the bridge and head down Ocean Avenue to St. Michael's in the West End section of Long Branch.

It is expected to arrive at about 10 a.m. when the service will begin.

After the service …

Following the funeral, the procession will head down Ocean Avenue to Cedar Avenue. It will make a left onto Cedar (Route 71) and proceed all the way to Route 36.

It will then turn left onto Route 36 and to the Garden State Parkway to Exit 109. At 109, the procession will travel down Newman Springs Road to Shrewsbury Avenue.

It will turn left onto Shrewsbury and then continue over the Cooper's Bridge onto Route 35 north and to Chapel Hill Road, where the chief will be interred at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Middletown.